Swaraj University, Udaipur, 2012-14
Overview
• Duration: Two-year self-designed learning journey
• Focus: Deep listening, unlearning dominant paradigms, building ecological, emotional, and systemic literacy
• Philosophy: Rooted in the doctrine of Swaraj — reclaiming agency over learning, livelihood, and imagination
Key Work
• Designed a personalized curriculum combining environmental literacy, emotional intelligence, facilitation, storytelling, and regenerative living
• Immersed in grassroots learning spaces like Puvidham, Marudam, and Narmada Bachao Andolan
• Studied Nonviolent Communication, documentary filmmaking, alternative development frameworks
Core Practices
• Practiced reflective reading of transformative texts (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Small is Beautiful, Ishmael, Rethinking Development)
• Mentored and guided by Manish Jain, Dinesh Kothari, Chinmay Mishra, and Reva Dandage
• Engaged with slow learning, trust-based relationships, and systemic inquiry
Impact
• Internalized deep listening as a foundation for systemic change
• Strengthened philosophical grounding in dignity-centered education and regenerative futures
• Laid the emotional and intellectual foundations for future work across education, livelihoods, and healing
After unlearning the dominant models of education at Shikshantar, I found myself searching for a space where the work of listening — to self, to community, to the world — could deepen.
Swaraj University became that space.
Here, learning was not transmitted; it was discovered through relationships, reflection, and risk. I developed my own self-designed learning journey, focusing on understanding the dominant systems that shape our lives — capitalism, patriarchy, industrial development — while seeking alternatives rooted in dignity, ecological belonging, and community wisdom.
At Swaraj, listening was not passive. It was a rigorous practice — listening to the stories that the mainstream erased, to my own conditioned assumptions, and to the slow rhythms of grassroots life. I immersed myself in the philosophy of Swaraj — not simply as political autonomy, but as the inner discipline of self-rule, local resilience, and ethical living. Gandhi’s writings on Swaraj became a living inquiry: What does it mean to reclaim agency, not only over governance, but over learning, livelihood, and the imagination itself?
This journey was shaped by the mentorship and companionship of many. Manish Jain, co-founder of Swaraj University, challenged us to question dominant paradigms of development and success. Dinesh Kothari of Banyan Tree Publications introduced me to radical educational thought and critical pedagogy. Chinmay Mishra, a grassroots activist and writer, deepened my understanding of people's movements and narrative justice. Reva Dandage from Swaraj University embodied the ethic of slow, community-centered learning.
Reading became an anchor of this listening practice — not as accumulation of knowledge, but as expansion of perception. Works like Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, and Rethinking Development by Manish Jain were not just books, but companions in unlearning and reimagining.
I developed a custom curriculum emphasizing environmental literacy, emotional intelligence, facilitation, and storytelling — not as isolated skills, but as bridges between fractured worlds.
Alongside my peers, I immersed myself in village learning programs, nonviolent communication practices, documentary storytelling, and volunteering with holistic education spaces such as Puvidham and Marudam.
At Swaraj, leadership was reframed — not as the power to direct others, but the responsibility to listen, to reflect, to co-create. Listening became the foundation of meaningful action, revealing that systemic change begins in the relationships we nurture, the stories we tell, and the futures we dare to live into.
This experience rooted my ongoing commitment:
to move beyond critique into co-creation,
to navigate complexity with humility,
and to walk the long journey from separation toward interbeing.